SPORT 1913 - 2013

(http://www.clarioncc.org/about.html) The central organisation which was created in 1923, the British Workers Federation of Sport (BWFS), reached only a couple of thousand members. It was also very short-lived; already in 1935 the union was dissolved (Jones 1985, 110–122). Although the three Scandinavian coun- tries Denmark, Norway and Sweden with their strong Social Democratic Parties were quite similar in their political and societal struc- tures, the development of labour sport was very different in each country. In Sweden the Social Democratic Party did not support the separation of workers sport clubs from the na- tional sport movement (Riksidrottsförbundet RIF) founded in 1903. This was a determinat- ing political choice of the party: it decided to compete with the bourgeoisie on power in the sport movement, likewise on any other sector of the Swedish society. However, after the First World War, the left sport opposition sup- ported by the Communist Party wanted a sep- aration from the bourgeois sport movement. In 1928 worker sport clubs belonging to the left sport opposition founded Arbetarnas Idrottsförbund (AIF), Workers Sport Associa- tion for their central organisation. The union was politically dominated by the Communist Party (Pålbrant 1977, 153–164). Especially in Northern Sweden the AIF had a few strong centres but at the same time the organisation suffered from continuous disputes and disso- lutions of the Swedish Communist move- ment. In 1936 the AIF was dissolved. It is sig-

nificant that the Swedish worker sport has never participated to the international coop- eration of worker sport in the framework of SASI or CSIT. Also in Denmark the first worker sport clubs cooperated with the bourgeois sport movement. During the 1920’s, along with in- creasing political discrimination of worker sport by the bourgeois, the need for separation grew. Differently from their Swedish col- leagues, the leaders of the Danish Social Dem- ocratic Party supported the constitution of the worker sport central union. In a conference held in Odense in May 1929 fifty labour sport clubs founded the Dansk Arbeider Idrættsfor- bund (DAI) which cooperated with the SASI during the 1930’s and participated to the Workers’ Olympiad in Vienna and Antwerp. However, the DAI never grew to a mass move- ment. In the beginning of the 1930’s the union counted about 20 000 members. During the German occupation, the clubs of the DAI were forced to join the national sport movement which was standardised by the German mod- el. After the Second World War the DAI was founded anew, and since 1946 the union has belonged to the CSIT. (Thomsen 2004) In Norway the organised worker sport was even more strongly than in other Scandi- navian countries influenced by disputes and splits of the political worker movement. Like in many other countries, in Norway, too, short after the First World War a left opposition of worker sport clubs was formed in the national central union Norges landsforbund for Idrett

(NLFI). (Olstad 1987, 205–236) The clubs of the sport opposition started to cooperate with the Red Sport International (RSI) which had been founded in 1921 by the Communist Interna- tional (Comintern) in Moscow. This was in line with the political choice of the Norwegian Labour Party (Det Norske Arbeiderparti) which joined the Comintern. Although the party was expelled from the Comintern al- ready in 1923 the Norwegian worker sport continued its cooperation with the RSI. In June 1924, the central union of the Norwegian worker sport, Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund (AIF) was founded. Until 1929 it was an active participant in the Communist sport move- ment but after a political change in the union leadership in favour of Social Democrats the AIF joined the SASI. (Hofmo 1937, 63–66) Dur- ing the 1930’s Norwegian worker sportsmen participated with great success to Workers’ Olympiads. Under the German occupation the AIF was forbidden. Shortly after the Second World War in 1946 the AIF decided to fuse with the Norwegian national sport union NLFI. That is the reason for the total non-at- tendance of Norwegian worker sport in the international cooperation of worker sport or- ganised by the CSIT. In Finland the development of worker sport was deeply rooted to local worker asso- ciations which were the basic organisations of the Social Democratic Party. By 1917, more than 120 sport clubs had been founded as sec- tions of worker associations. Most of them belonged to the Finnish Gymnastic and Sport

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